An internship is an opportunity that companies offer for a limited duration to let fresh graduates and students learn and get hands-on work experience. It is also beneficial for employers to hire interns in the organization, as it can bring new ideas into the workplace, and potentially build a workflow for future full-time employees. Recruiters can build a process to hire interns, and then after selecting the qualifying candidates, they can share an offer letter format for internship to notify them about further processes.
Finding and taking on an internship is crucial for many people. It is the best way to start your career and get a job in your desired company or industry. It can be an important part of your career to decide whether you want to apply for an internship and, if yes, then which internship would be the right choice for you. Therefore, before applying for an internship, it will be beneficial for you to understand its benefits and drawbacks. To help you get clarification about internship, here in this article, we have discussed the pros and cons of undertaking it.
7 Benefits of Taking an Internship
There are many benefits associated with an internship, such as, you will get good experience and might get to know a company or chosen sector. You get to start your career with a great learning experience and can enlarge your professional network. To better understand every benefit, let us go through each of them in detail.
1. Get Hands-on with the Field of Interest
If you have never worked before, then first and foremost, you should be clear about what career path you should choose. An internship can be one of the effective ways that can help you make up your mind. When you get your hands-on experience, you will get clarification about whether the aspirational career path that you have chosen is right for you or not.
2. You Can Gain Actual Work Experience
Internships can be considered a great way to start your career. It allows you to handle real-time work duties in an actual work environment. It also allows you to get yourself adjusted to workplace norms and work patterns. This hands-on approach will assist you to prepare yourself for future job opportunities.
3. Helps in Building Self-confidence
When you have finished your study and planning to work, that sudden change of routine activities might bring harsh experiences, full of unknown things and what-ifs. Internship is an entry-level way to reduce and simplify these issues with fewer risks involved. Also, you can improve your self-confidence with a structured introduction to the professional world.
4. Brings an Opportunity to Create a Network
It can be a great opportunity for you to make connections during your internship. When you are on an internship, you will be having managers, co-workers, and subsidiary contacts such as the human resources team, or even clients. Selling your personal brand to these individuals is essential if you want them to become a part of your long-term network. This contact might help you in securing a permanent job.
5. Add Values to Your Resume
Internships can have a lot of importance on your resume. In addition, an internship offers an additional experience to showcase in your resume with your educational experience. When you are getting interviewed for a full-time job, and manifesting your internship experience might increase your chances of getting qualified.
6. You Will Get Counselled
Pursuing an internship is one of the best ways to learn from others. Either your manager will be your direct counselor, or the company will assign a mentor for you. Mentors will effectively support you through your internship, as they are possessing great knowledge that may help you with every work-related situation. Also, they can provide long-term support, to help you with any work-related challenges that you may require in the future.
7. Secures Your Future Reference
You should do an exceptional job in your internship, and choose some great references, who can assist with your future full-time job search. Your key reference should be your manager, but you can also get references from your assigned mentors and supervisors. One thing you should keep in mind is to take permission from the individual before you mention them in your resume.
5 Drawbacks of Taking an Internship
Internships cause remarkable life changes, and your normal life might get affected by its significant disruption. Therefore, you must be prepared for these changes. There are many unknown things that you may face, and it is possible that it might not provide you with what was promised. You might also have to work on unpleasant tasks, suffer with less earning potential, get less respect, or be treated like a junior. Still, you should be well aware of these disadvantages. So, let us go through the drawbacks of the internship in detail.
1. Less Earning Potential
In exceptional cases, internships offer fair remuneration. But, in most cases, internships are less-paying or even unpaid in some industries. You should expect that the internship may or may not pay well. Also, while applying for an internship, you should compare salaries in your preferred sector and shop around for a better internship that pays well.
2. Stressful Competition
There may be extreme competition for the best internship in any sector. Companies might only be offering internships for a few positions at a time, and in return, receive hundreds of applications. Applying and getting qualified for these opportunities can be stressful and might even lead to failure and demotivation. Most candidates fail in the interview round due to a lack of preparation. To stand out from the competition, you should prepare common intern interview questions that the interviewer may ask. It can help in maximizing your chances of getting qualified.
3. It Comes in the Way to Getting a Job
For some people, finding a full-time job may become a time-consuming task. Although internships can become an obstacle in getting a job, it is essential if you want to gain relevant experience. Some individuals miss out on long-term roles when they take an internship and when this opportunity arises. Also, they may not be able to withdraw from the internship they have applied for.
4. Menial Work
In some cases, internships only offer their interns the chance to work on menial work. In the end, It will result in poor work experience. You may not be required to perform any duties of assistant, but it only allows you to handle administrative responsibilities or other grunt work that no other employee wants to do. To avoid getting into this problem, when contacting various companies, you should look for a structured and goal-oriented internship.
5. There is no Guarantee of a Job
In the end, an internship can provide you with many wonderful experiences. But, it does not guarantee you any kind of job. An internship will only guide you the way into a company, offer networking opportunities, and help you learn new skills. Although some of them can be very competitive. In addition, your success will primarily depend on your efforts. Companies are not committed to hiring any intern who does not perform well on an internship, and even sometimes, a good performer may not get the job.
Summary
If you are planning to undertake an internship, then before that, you should consider checking out these benefits that we have discussed earlier. Also, you should be well aware of every unavoidable drawback related to internships. If we conclude this topic, then we would suggest that an internship is ultimately a learning experience, whether it is good or bad!
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